After 16 Years, Balmain Is Returning to Couture

Grecian dress styles have long held fascination for fashion designers, especially the goddess variety, and while Georges Hobeika enters that familiar terrain for Spring 2018 Couture, there is no one that does a goddess gown quite like the master couturier. He entertained an especially sensual aesthetic this time around, with looks that showed a lot of leg peeking through high slits and barely-there bodices that left little to the imagination.

Photo: Courtesy of Imaxtree

From a distance, the first look resembles a feathered top and embroidered trousers, but on closer inspection, there is actually a lion stitched right into the middle of it, the feathers forming his electrified mane. It certainly was a fun way to translate Hobeika’s Grecian-goddess message. After all, the golden lion of Greek mythology was a fearsome opponent of Heracles.

There is no one that does a goddess gown quite like the master couturier.

While the opening look occupied metaphorical territory, the rest of the collection was much more literally of the “Grecian goddess” stripe. Diaphanous dresses strewn with embellishment – some decorated with little flutter sleeves while others had feminine draped shoulders or bore dramatic cape-backed accents – were the central thesis of the show.

While every look in the line-up possessed that special couture magic, a crop of slinky, glitter gowns possessed the highest “wow” factor, especially in the case of a stunning crystal gown made from a gossamer web of sparkling strands (and not much else). Once again, Hobeika leaves us breathless at the finale, a sensation you think we’d expect by now, but the fact that he still stuns by way of sheer beauty speaks to his acumen as a couturier.

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